Our Monsters, Ourselves
Our Monsters, Ourselves
Reimagining the Problem of Knowledge in Cold War America
What was the status of American scientists working with the US military during the Cold War? Were they the equals of their military patrons, or were they employees, doing jobs to which they had been assigned? Answers from two leading science policy experts reveal the presence of competing sociotechnical imaginaries in early Cold War America. In one imaginary, articulated by Vannevar Bush, science and politics were separate domains and breaching their boundaries was akin to the Soviet Union's monstrous Lysenkoist moment of politics corrupting science. In another, expounded by Bush's most influential reader, Don Price, the freedom of science rested upon the incorporation of science into the American state's postwar foundation. Reading Price's influential 1954 work, Science and Government, this essay explores how Price sought to convince researchers that what had once been a problem could be solved by properly training a cadre of policy professionals who could mediate between truth and power.
Keywords: sociotechnical imaginary, US science policy, Cold War science, military, research and development, Lysenkoism, expertise
Chicago Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs, and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us.
